Excerpt from Some Scientific Conclusions Concerning the Alcoholic Problem and Its Practical Relations to Life
The effect of ethyl alcohol, in its pure form, upon the organism differs in some ways from that of spirituous liquors of which it is the chief constituent, doubtless from the fact that certain ethers are present in the spirits and absent from the alcohol. The first result, after the ingestion of a moderate quantity of ethyl alcohol in man - a fluid ounce, for example, of absolute alcohol properly diluted - is to cause a fall of from 15 to 20 beats a minute in the heart"s action, accompanied by some hardening of the quality of the pulse. This is followed, almost immediately, by a feeling of muscular lassitude, then mental confusion, both of which increase gradually, and in an hour or two are lost.
A few instances of its more continued effects on man may be cited. One man of 40 years, who voluntarily subjected himself to a months" course of ethyl alcohol, in daily doses, beginning with 2 ounces and gradually increasing to 4 ounces, taken mainly in the late evening, exhibited the following symptoms: After the initial vascular disturbance came considerable mental confusion, inability to control the voluntary muscles, and intense sleepiness. On the following morning, after a period of from six to seven hours profound sleep, there was considerable irritability of the heart"s action, which persisted up to 3 or 4 o"clock the following afternoon, mental lassitude, and difficulty in keeping up with the daily routine work. By the end of the month there was well-marked and persistent irritability of the heart"s action, palpitation, at times a feeling of praecordial anxiety with some difficulty in the respiration, a pulse showing a considerable increase in tension, and decided evidence of dilatation of the peripheral arteries, the indications of beginning fatty changes in the heart and muscularis of the blood vessels. With these symptoms were others indicating a considerable digestive disturbance in the form of mucous diarrheas, neuralgic pains in the forehead and limbs, together with a lessened ability to think clearly at any time, and mental irritability. When the alcohol was stopped, all the symptoms, inclusive of the arterial dilatation receded rapidly, and soon disappeared.
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